Week 1: 

What went well? 

I feel like I really integrated into the office culture. Not only have I learned basic information about my colleagues (names, where they’re from, and an outside of work interest), I’ve also been able to begin to ask what draws them to the important work of providing legal services to poor people living in West Virginia. 

What could have been done differently? 

I feel like I could manage my time in the office better. My mornings feel very fast paced and I’m jumping between projects to get the bulk of my work done before 11. After lunch, I typically take a trip to the courthouse or a recovery center, but then once I come back from their I engage in casual conversation with my boss or another intern. While I have a really good time doing this, I can’t help but think of how I might buttress my experience in direct services by engaging with broader theories of systemic change.

What did I learn about myself while working with others? 

To be perfectly honest, I was disappointed with myself in how I engaged with clients. Often clients come in and tell very violent experiences quite nonchalantly. I don’t really know how to respond. Should I be more shocked when a client admits that under the influence of substances, they hit their partner’s grandmother? Is it better just to process those facts as a component of active use? I also thought a lot about how I might set clients at ease. Every client I met with this week I could see they felt judged at least a bit by the attorneys at Legal Aid. To some degree, this is unavoidable in that we come to our clients as strangers and hope to engage them in a partnership. However, there’s an undeniable power dynamic at play. I found this week that it’s important to be conscious of that, but also to determine it is unacceptable and actively seek ways to set clients at ease. 

What did I learn about leadership? 

I learned that leadership in this field is mostly about centering the most marginalized in how we listen to people experiencing poverty. Clients are the experts and folks working in direct service come in to listen well enough to offer assistance in what clients direct us to. 

What do I want to develop or focus on next? 

I’d like to think more about these daily issues our clients face in a broader systemic context. Is law really the best language to speak to poverty? I don’t know. I think next week I will read the book “Evicted” by Matthew Desmond to further engage with some of the housing cases I have been drafting work products for. These issues intimately affect our clients, but it goes beyond just the people we see come through our door.